Overhaul Allocation System

Central Florida Has Been Shortchanged When It Comes To Financing Substance-abuse And Mental-health Treatment. That Should End.

March 4, 1996|By Fucshia

For more than a decade, Central Floridians struggling to cope with drug, alcohol or mental-health problems have been shortchanged by state lawmakers.

That must change.

Although their counties are home to more than 14 percent of the state's population, residents of Orange, Osceola, Brevard and Seminole counties receive only 9 percent of the state money for substance-abuse and mental-health issues, according to Florida Department of Health and Human Services figures.

Consider that there are 1.3 million residents in Osceola, Seminole and Orange counties but only 15 beds for alcohol detoxification. Where do those in need turn?

To overwhelmed, expensive hospital emergency rooms, where they don't get counseling or any other help. In a worst-case scenario, they wind up in jail.

The shortage of beds for psychiatric patients in Central Florida is so acute that about 60 percent of the estimated 24,000 children who need mental-health services aren't being served.

That's appalling.

The district has lower administrative overhead than the state average and consistently has performed better than the state average in finding jobs for clients and helping them to become productive, taxpaying citizens after treatment.

So why are Central Floridians cheated of desperately needed resources?

Politics, plain and simple.

Prior to the 1980s, federal dollars were allocated on a project-by-project basis for mental-health and substance-abuse programs. Back then, Florida's Panhandle was home to most of the state's centralized mental-health hospitals and received the largest share of federal dollars.

Once those services were dispersed to serve communities statewide, though, the money failed to follow as it should have.

National statistics estimate that 8.5 percent of the population is in need of substance-abuse intervention and that 2.6 percent is mentally ill. It's sensible, then, that population and the need for services should determine how the money is allocated, with some attention paid to lower-income areas where residents can't afford private help.

For three years, HRS administrators have tried to focus legislative attention on the issue. Each time, though, they've been rebuffed by powerful Panhandle lawmakers who refuse to give up even a penny of dwindling social-service resources.

This year the issue is starting to pick up steam. Rep. Bill Sublette, R-Orlando, has introduced a bill that would direct 75 percent of any new money to districts that have fared poorly in the past.

Unfortunately, Mr. Sublette's bill wouldn't change a thing in the near term. There is no new money for substance-abuse or mental-health issues coming from the state, or from Washington. If anything, experts predict, those allocations are likely to be reduced.

A total overhaul of the allocation process is what's needed.

Financing the state's substance-abuse and mental-illness needs shouldn't be driven by politics. Common sense dictates that taxpayer dollars should be spent where the need is greatest.